Here are the essential tips I used to begin my journey towards achieving Senior Fellowship. I hope they will prove beneficial to you as well.
Tip no. 1
Identify your fellowship category using the Fellowship Category Tool
Advance HE awards fellowship in four categories: Associate, Fellowship, Senior and Principal. These categories reflect the diverse roles of those who teach and support learning in higher education, ranging from positions where teaching and learning is only part of the role, to senior professionals with strategic impact on teaching and learning at program, departmental, an organisational, national, or international level.
Fellowship is awarded based on evidence that meets the Professional Standards Framework 2023 requirements.
My first tip in preparing for your fellowship application is to accurately identify the fellowship category that best suits your current practice and professional aspirations. This identification is critical as it guides the direction of your application and ensures you address the appropriate dimensions of the PSF framework.
To identify your fellowship category, I highly recommend using Advance HE’s Fellowship Category Tool to assist in this crucial step. The tool is specifically designed to guide you through a series of questions, taking approximately 20-25 minutes. By accurately identifying your category, you can focus your application efforts on areas that align with your strengths and make a more compelling case for your fellowship.
Tip no. 2
Understanding the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) 2023 using the guide to the PSF 2023 Dimensions and using the planning grid to pre-select examples
The next essential step in preparing for your application is to understand the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) 2023 and its descriptors and dimensions. The PSF 2023 consists of 15 statements arranged as three sets: Professional Values, Core Knowledge, and Areas of Activity. These dimensions outline the essential practices that enable high-quality teaching and/or support of learning in higher education. Understanding these dimensions is crucial for your application, as they guide your evidence collection and
My second tip is that I highly recommend using the Senior Fellowship (D3) Guide to the PSF 2023 Dimensions to understand the PSF 2023. This guide provides detailed explanations, examples and prompt questions for each of the 15 dimensions. It covers a wide range of roles and contexts in the global higher education sector, making it relevant and adaptable to your practice. By focusing on the dimensions that best reflect your own practice, you can gather effective evidence and demonstrate the impact of your work. This comprehensive understanding of the PSF 2023 will enhance your application and increase your chances of a successful outcome.
As you read through the guide, consider using a planning grid (available in Applicant guidance - Senior Fellowship February 2023, p26) to organise examples that relate to your practice. For each dimension and descriptor, note down keywords and examples that align with your practice. This will help you efficiently gather evidence and demonstrate your impact in each area when you write your application later.
Tip no. 3
Criteria for selecting compelling examples
While reading the guide, you might have gathered many examples that you feel relate to your work. Advance HE's application process for Senior Fellowship requires you to prepare two case studies and a reflective narrative within a strict limit of 6,000 words, along with 300 and 500 words dedicated to context statement and references. Consequently, you must be selective and meticulous in choosing rich examples that answer most of the questions outlined below:
- In which contexts did you influence or lead the teaching and/or supporting learning practices of others over a sustained period? (Applicant Guidance Senior Fellowship, p20)
- What were you seeking to achieve and why?
- What prompted you to take on the role?
- How did you approach the role?
- What approaches did you take to leading or influencing, and what was your rationale for selecting these approaches? Additionally, what evidence did you rely on when making these decisions? (The evidence base can come from various sources, including the literature pedagogic or professional or your own experience and continuing professional development. Drawing on evidence base helps to demonstrate the soundness of your approach and the effectiveness of your influence. For example, if you claim to have developed innovative teaching strategies, you would provide evidence such as research articles, books, or educational theories that support your methods. Similarly, if you are highlighting the impact you have had on colleagues, you would present evidence such as feedback from peers or data showing improved teaching practices).
- What challenges did you encounter, and how did you manage them? In particular, the reviewers will be interested in learning how you approached your leadership role in dealing with these challenges.
- Explain the impact(s): What was achieved? How do you know that what you did was effective?
- What would you do differently next time or how have you adapted your approach in subsequent work?
- Who did you work with, and why these people?
- If you set up a committee, how did you identify or approach members? What were the terms of reference or objectives of the committee, and how did you arrive at these? What changed as a result of the work of the committee? What is your impact or influence in the committee, and if you hadn't influenced them, would there have been no positive change in the students? (Applicant Guidance Senior Fellowship, p21)
In summary, the examples you use for a Senior Fellowship application should show how you have worked with other colleagues to enhance their learning and teaching practice and explain how this has been effective in promoting high-quality learning, making a positive difference to learners and their experience as a result. (Applicant Guidance Senior Fellowship, p23)
Tip no. 4
Think of impact from a top to bottom approach
This approach helps you demonstrate how your contributions have made a difference across different levels of the educational system and beyond. It is crucial to place significant emphasis on the impact on students, as the primary mission of higher education is to educate and prepare students for their future careers and lives.
First step
When initiating the process of applying for Advance HE Fellowship keep in mind that taking the first step of starting to write is the most crucial. Once you commence writing, you'll likely gain momentum, and your ideas will flow more naturally.
Wishing you the best of luck as you begin, and please do share your thoughts at aitzaz.sarang@gmail.com on what works for you and what doesn't. I've only touched upon the surface of this topic here, and I'm certain there will be much more to discuss in the future.